As a further demonstration that its food is completely safe to eat, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell will visit a Philadelphia Taco Bell tomorrow to have lunch with Greg Creed, Taco Bell President. The lunch will include a complete tour of the facility, as well as interview and photo opportunities for media.

So, while the good Governor eats tacos and sucks up to corporate interests, bodies are still being counted in Pennsylvania and neighboring States stemming from the Taco Bell E. coli outbreak. The numbers as of last week were:

New York – 25 confirmed; 333 suspect

New Jersey – 37 confirmed; 11 probable

And in the Governor’s home State of Pennsylvania – 10 confirmed; 6 probable

On December 5, 2006 I posted on www.marlerblog.com:

E. coli Attorney Calls on Taco Bell to Pay Victims’ Medical Bills

William Marler, a nationally-recognized food safety advocate and attorney, today called on Taco Bell “to do the right thing and immediately pay the medical bills for the victims of this most recent E. coli O157:H7 outbreak traced to Taco Bell restaurants in New York and New Jersey. Marler noted that, in other outbreaks, companies such as Dole, Jack in the Box, Odwalla, Chi-Chi’s and Sheetz advanced medical costs for outbreak victims whose illnesses were traced to their food products.

Taco Bell is familiar with E. coli outbreaks. 10 people where made ill by the potentially deadly E. coli O157:H7 bacteria in December 1999, including a 5-year-old girl and an 8-year-old girl, who were hospitalized. All but one of the victims recalled eating at various Taco Bell restaurants within eight days of their illness, and all 10 cases have been linked genetically to bacteria likely to have originated at a single source.

So, Governor, perhaps between meals you could do something useful and ask the CEO why no offer to pay the medical bills of the people he poisoned?